Classic American Cars in 1954

We recently received a copy of the February 1954 Popular Mechanics as a gift --- it was the magazine's "Special Auto Section" that caught my eye right away. But more about that later.

Far more interesting to a car buff, however, was the American Classics article on the 12 finest ageless cars of all time (at least up to 1954). I have to admit the 12 chosen are still the 12 that would be chosen as ageless classics even now.

Notably, only one manufacturer on the list is still around, Lincoln. But the ones who died certainly went out in a blaze of designing glory.

Duesenberg 1931 J Roadster Murphy
Duesenberg 1931 J Victoria Rollston
Lincoln 1932 KB Phaeton Dual Cowl
Packard 1929 Sport Phaeton
Pierce Arrow 1933 Silver Arrow V12
Stutz 1932 Super Bearcat
Cord 1937 Convertible Coupe
Packard 1930 Speedster
Kissel 1927 White Eagle Speedster
Auburn 1936 Supercharged Speedster
Marmon 1931 V16 Club Sedan
Lincoln 1941 Continental Convertible

You only need to look at the elegant Duesenberg Rollston to realize that these were made n the heyday of elegant luxury motorcars. These were indeed the kind of cars that Hollywood stars and Wall Street moguls owned. And many of them were made in America. Indeed, most of them were even though they had strong European influences.

But the Lincoln Phaeton was truely something else.

It's a quarter million dollar car now and it was no price slouch back in the early 1930's either.

Of course, as beautiful as these rolling works of art were, they were costly then and worse now. To build a car of that quality level now would cost a staggering amount...gee, maybe more than the top of the line Mercedes? Undoubtedly. But you know what? You'd get a remarkable work of art for the price and that's just something you don't get with new cars nowadays, no matter what the price. Now if Detroit could only build a work of art like these 12 classics, without it costing you an arm and a leg, the imports could be beaten back from our shores.

Until then, you and I can only look at the pictures and dream.

A fine car is a balance of both style and performance and quality and price. For too long Detroit has been building cars with one of those aspects and sometimes two but they just can't seem to get all four of them in one vehicle at one time. When they do, I'll buy it and probably a lot of other people will too.

Until Detroit figures that out, if you get a stylish lemon that the factory won't stand behind, call us. If you get a powerfully performing lemon that just won't perform, call us. If you get a lemon that was built with junk and not with quality, call us. If you get ripped off on a costly lemon by a lousy dealer and no one seems to care, call us.

We file lawsuits everyday to protect consumers from badly built lemons sold by dishonest dealers. It's what we do.